Diamond
Carbon has an electronic arrangement of 2,4. In diamond, each
carbon shares electrons with four other carbon atoms - forming four
single bonds.
In the diagram some carbon atoms only seem to be forming two
bonds (or even one bond), but that's not really the case. We are only
showing a small bit of the whole structure. This is a giant covalent
structure - it continues on and on in three dimensions. It is not a
molecule, because the number of atoms joined up in a real diamond
is completely variable - depending on the size of the crystal.
Bonding: The carbon atoms in diamond form covalent bonds with one another through the
sharing of electrons. In a covalent bond, the atoms share electrons in order to fill their outermost
electron shells and achieve greater stability. Because each carbon atom in diamond is bonded to
four neighboring carbon atoms, this results in a very strong and stable lattice structure.
How to draw the structure of diamond
Don't try to be too clever by trying to draw too much of the
structure! Learn to draw the diagram given above. Do it in the
following stages:
Practice until you can do a reasonable free-hand sketch in about 30
seconds.
Physical Properties of Diamond
has a very high melting point (almost 4000°C). Very strong
carbon-carbon covalent bonds have to be broken throughout
the structure before melting occurs.
is very hard. This is again due to the need to break very strong
covalent bonds operating in 3-dimensions.
doesn't conduct electricity. All the electrons are held tightly
between the atoms, and aren't free to move.
is insoluble in water and organic solvents. There are no
possible attractions which could occur between solvent
molecules and carbon atoms which could outweigh the
attractions between the covalently bound carbon atoms.
Graphite
Graphite has a layer structure which is quite difficult to draw
convincingly in three dimensions. The diagram below shows the
arrangement of the atoms in each layer, and the way the layers are
spaced.
Notice that you cannot really draw the side view of the layers to the
same scale as the atoms in the layer without one or other part of
the diagram being either very spread out or very squashed. In that
case, it is important to give some idea of the distances involved.
The distance between the layers is about 2.5 times the distance
between the atoms within each layer. The layers, of course, extend
over huge numbers of atoms - not just the few shown above.
You might argue that carbon has to form 4 bonds because of its 4 unpaired
electrons, whereas in this diagram it only seems to be forming 3 bonds to the
neighboring carbons. This diagram is something of a simplification, and shows the
arrangement of atoms rather than the bonding.
The Bonding in Graphite
Each carbon atom uses three of its electrons to form simple bonds
to its three close neighbors. That leaves a fourth electron in the
bonding level. These "spare" electrons in each carbon atom become
delocalized over the whole of the sheet of atoms in one layer. They
are no longer associated directly with any particular atom or pair of
atoms, but are free to wander throughout the whole sheet. The
important thing is that the delocalized electrons are free to move
anywhere within the sheet - each electron is no longer fixed to a
particular carbon atom. There is, however, no direct contact
between the delocalized electrons in one sheet and those in the
neighboring sheets. The atoms within a sheet are held together by
strong covalent bonds - stronger, in fact, than in diamond because
of the additional bonding caused by the delocalized electrons.
So what holds the sheets together? In graphite you have the
ultimate example of van der Waals dispersion forces. As the
delocalized electrons move around in the sheet, very large
temporary dipoles can be set up which will induce opposite dipoles
in the sheets above and below - and so on throughout the whole
graphite crystal.
Graphite has a high melting point, similar to that of diamond. In order
to melt graphite, it isn't enough to loosen one sheet from another.
You have to break the covalent bonding throughout the whole
structure. It has a soft, slippery feel, and is used in pencils and as a
dry lubricant for things like locks. You can think of graphite rather
like a pack of cards - each card is strong, but the cards will slide
over each other, or even fall off the pack altogether. When you use a
pencil, sheets are rubbed off and stick to the paper. Graphite has a
lower density than diamond. This is because of the relatively large
amount of space that is "wasted" between the sheets.
Graphite is insoluble in water and organic solvents - for the same
reason that diamond is insoluble. Attractions between solvent
molecules and carbon atoms will never be strong enough to
overcome the strong covalent bonds in graphite. conducts
electricity. The delocalized electrons are free to move throughout
the sheets. If a piece of graphite is connected into a circuit,
electrons can fall off one end of the sheet and be replaced with new
ones at the other end.
Silicon dioxide: SiO2
Silicon dioxide is also known as silica or silicon(IV) oxide has three
different crystal forms. The easiest one to remember and draw is
based on the diamond structure. Crystalline silicon has the same
structure as diamond. To turn it into silicon dioxide, all you need to
do is to modify the silicon structure by including some oxygen
atoms.
Notice that each silicon atom is bridged to its neighbors by an
oxygen atom. Don't forget that this is just a tiny part of a giant
structure extending on all 3 dimensions.
Silicon Dioxide has a high melting point - varying depending on
what the particular structure is (remember that the structure given
is only one of three possible structures), but around 1700°C. Very
strong silicon-oxygen covalent bonds have to be broken throughout
the structure before melting occurs. Morevoer, it hard due to the
need to break the very strong covalent bonds.Silicon Dioxide does
not conduct electricity since there aren't any delocalized electrons
with all the electrons are held tightly between the atoms, and are
not free to move. Silicon Dioxide is insoluble in water and organic
solvents. There are no possible attractions which could occur
between solvent molecules and the silicon or oxygen atoms which
could overcome the covalent bonds in the giant structure.
Copper, Cu
Solid copper can be described as the arrangement of copper atoms in a face-centered-cubic
(fcc) configuration. A copper atom is found at each corner and in the center of each face of a
cube as depicted in Figure 1. This is the unit cell which is repeated in three dimensional
space to make up the crystal structure of the metal.
The atoms are held in place in the structure by the energy of the atomic attractions between
them. It is this particular face-centered cubic arrangement of the atoms that gives copper its
high ductility and toughness.
